Early Christian Beliefs on Contraception
Early Christian writers did not leave one simple rule on modern contraception, but many clearly taught that sex should stay open to children and that abortion was wrong. Tertullian, Minucius Felix, Athenagoras, Clement of Alexandria, and Lactantius all push Christian sex toward procreation and self-control. The strongest direct links are about avoiding abortion, avoiding sterility drugs, and not using sex only for pleasure.
143 early-church witnesses · 227 source quotations · compared with Scripture
What did early Christians believe about contraception?
The early Christian writings do not give a single, direct rule about contraception, but several major writers strongly reject stopping conception or destroying unborn life. Tertullian, Minucius Felix, Athenagoras, Clement of Alexandria, and Lactantius tie Christian sex to procreation and condemn actions that block birth or end pregnancy. The clearest direct line is against abortion and against sexual use that ignores the making of children;
the strongest near-match for contraception is a later warning about women using drugs to produce sterility. The evidence is broad for procreation-centered sexual ethics, but direct teaching on modern contraception is thin and often indirect. Many more early Christian quotations, Bible passages, and source links are gathered below so you can study the evidence for yourself.
Key Takeaways
- Early Christian writers often treated childbearing as the normal purpose of sex.
- Several writers condemned abortion and also spoke against stopping conception.
- A later text from Hippolytus mentions women using drugs to produce sterility.
- Direct teaching on modern contraception is limited, so the case is mostly indirect.
Questions Answered by the Sources
Did early Christians teach that sex should be open to having children?
Several sources say sex belongs to procreation, not pleasure alone, and that what goes beyond the desire for children is condemned. These are the clearest direct statements connecting Christian sexual ethics to childbearing.
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Athenagoras, A Plea for the Christians Direct teaching
For as the husbandman throwing the seed into the ground awaits the harvest, not sowing more upon it, so to us the procreation of children is the measure of our indulgence in appetite.
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Lactantius, Connection to 1 Corinthians 7:2 Direct teaching
There would be no adulteries, and debaucheries, and prostitution of women, if it were known to all, that whatever is sought beyond the desire of procreation is condemned by God.
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Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Direct teaching
Wherefore, if any one on account of poverty shall be unable to bring up children, it is better to abstain from marriage than with wicked hands to mar the work of God.
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Lactantius, On the Workmanship of God Supporting witness
...en by parents, but by the one same God and Father of all, who alone has the law and method of their birth, since He alone brings them into being. The part of an earthly parent is only this: with a feeling of pleasure, to release the body's fluid, in which the material for birth is found, or to receive it. A man's power is limited to this work, and he has no power beyond it. Therefore men desire the birth of sons, because they do not bring it about themselves. Everything beyond this is God's work. That includes conception itself, the forming of the body, the breathing in of life, safe childbirth, and whatever later helps preserve human life. It is His gift that we breathe, that we live, and that we are strong. Besides this, we owe it to His goodness that we are kept safe in body, and that He provides us with food from many sources. He also gives wisdom to man, which no earthly father can give in any way. And so it often happens that foolish sons are born from wise parents, and wise sons from foolish parents. Some people attribute this to fate and the stars. But this is not the time to discuss the subject of fate. It is enough to say this: even if the stars somehow hold together t
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Minucius Felix, Octavius Supporting witness
in the desire of procreating, we know either one wife, or none at all.
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Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata (Miscellanies) Supporting witness
Deuteronomy 21:10-13 For it regards it not right that this should take place either in wantonness or for hire like harlots, but only for the birth of children.
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Cyprian, Treatises Supporting witness
... day of judgment deserved to be praised by the voice of the Judge! Let the rich be ashamed of their barrenness and unbelief. The widow, the widow poor in resources, is found rich in works. And although everything that is given is bestowed on widows and orphans, she gives, though she should have received, so that we may know from this what punishment awaits the barren rich man, when by this example even the poor ought to labor in good works. And so that we may understand that their labors are given to God, and that whoever does them deserves well of the Lord, Christ calls these the offerings of God. He shows that the widow put two small coins into the offerings of God, so that it may be even more clear that he who has pity on the poor lends to God.
Did early Christians condemn drugs used to end pregnancy or prevent birth?
The strongest witnesses explicitly reject women who use drugs to cause abortion, and one later witness says some Christian women used drugs to produce sterility. These texts are the closest direct evidence for early Christian opposition to contraception-like or abortifacient practices.
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Athenagoras, A Plea for the Christians Direct teaching
...t we may not take on guilt and defilement, could we kill people? And when we say that women who use drugs to cause an abortion commit murder, and will have to give an account to God for the abortion, by what reasoning should we commit murder ourselves? For the same person cannot both regard the fetus in the womb as a created being, and therefore an object of God's care, and then, after it has come into life, kill it. Nor can the same person refuse to expose an infant, because those who expose infants are guilty of child-murder, and then, on the other hand, destroy it after it has been raised. But in all things we are always consistent and the same, submitting ourselves to reason, and not ruling over it.
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Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies Direct teaching
Whence women, reputed believers, began to resort to drugs for producing sterility, and to gird themselves round, so to expel what was being conceived on account of their not wishing to have a child either by a slave or by any paltry fellow, for the sake of their family and excessive wealth.
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Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Supporting witness
You shall not slay your child by causing abortion, nor kill that which is begotten;
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Minucius Felix, Octavius Supporting witness
There are some women who, by drinking medical preparations, extinguish the source of the future man in their very bowels, and thus commit a parricide before they bring forth.
Did early Christians reject sex used only for pleasure?
The compiled sources repeatedly contrast lawful marriage and procreation with intercourse pursued only for pleasure. This supports the idea that early Christian writers judged non-procreative sex as morally disordered, even when marriage itself was not rejected.
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Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Background
And fornication is the destruction of one's own flesh, not being made use of for the procreation of children, but entirely for the sake of pleasure, which is a mark of incontinency, and not a sign of virtue.
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Tertullian, On Exhortation to Chastity Supporting witness
Are you to dissolve the conception by aid of drugs?
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Tertullian, Against Marcion Supporting witness
Now, when Marcion wholly prohibits all carnal intercourse to the faithful (for we will say nothing about his catechumens), and when he prescribes repudiation of all engagements before marriage, whose teaching does he follow, that of Moses or of Christ?
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Tertullian, On Exhortation to Chastity Supporting witness
But perhaps at that time of your wife's pregnancy you will have the hardihood to beg from God a remedy for so grave a solicitude, which, when it lay in your own power, you refused?
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Tertullian, On Exhortation to Chastity Background
that day when the woe pronounced over such as are with child and giving suck shall be fulfilled, that is, over the married and the incontinent: for from marriage result wombs, and breasts, and infants.
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Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata (Miscellanies) Background
The same is true of self-control. It is not practiced for the love of honor, like athletes who seek crowns and fame. On the other hand, it is not practiced for the love of money, as some seem to practice self-control while pursuing what is good through severe suffering. Nor is it practiced out of love for the body, for the sake of health. And a person who is moderate only because of a rough and simple way of life, and has never tasted pleasures, is not truly self-controlled. Certainly, those who have lived a hard-working life often collapse into pleasures as soon as they taste them, and the firmness of their temperance is broken. Such people are restrained by law and fear. When they find a good opportunity, they cheat the law by slipping away from what is good. But self-control, which is desirable for its own sake, and is made complete through knowledge, remains always. It makes a person lord and master of himself. So the Gnostic is temperate and free from passions, unable to be dissolved by pleasures and pains, just as they say adamant cannot be dissolved by fire.
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Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor (Paedagogus) Background
...y and pursuit of every pleasure. Over all these, desire rules like a tyrant. And countless passions related to these increase, by which uncontrolled habits are carried to the highest degree. And Scripture says, "Whips are prepared for the intemperate, and punishments for the shoulders of fools," Proverbs 19:29, calling the powers of intemperance, and the steady endurance of it, "the shoulders of fools." Therefore, "Remove vain hopes from your servants," it says, "and turn away shameful desires from me. Let not appetite for food and intercourse take hold of me."
What Bible passages are used to discuss contraception and birth control?
The best-fitting Bible cards are Onan, the jealousy offering in Numbers 5, and a New Testament command about abstaining from sexual immorality. These are the primary Bible passages in the supplied set that relate to conception, pregnancy, or sexual conduct.
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Genesis 38:9 Direct teaching
But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his. So whenever he went in to his brother's wife he would waste the semen on the ground, so as not to give offspring to his brother.
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Numbers 5:27 Direct teaching
And when he hath made her to drink the water, then it shall come to pass, that, if she be defiled, and have done trespass against her husband, that the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her, and become bitter, and her belly shall swell, and her thigh shall rot: and the woman shall be a curse among her people.
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Numbers 5:19 Supporting witness
Then the priest shall make her take an oath, saying, ‘If no man has lain with you, and if you have not turned aside to uncleanness while you were under your husband's authority, be free from this water of bitterness that brings the curse.
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Numbers 5:21 Supporting witness
Then the priest shall charge the woman with an oath of cursing, and the priest shall say unto the woman, The LORD make thee a curse and an oath among thy people, when the LORD doth make thy thigh to rot, and thy belly to swell;
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Numbers 5:18 Supporting witness
And the priest shall set the woman before the LORD and unbind the hair of the woman's head and place in her hands the grain offering of remembrance, which is the grain offering of jealousy. And in his hand the priest shall have the water of bitterness that brings the curse.
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1 Corinthians 7:5 Supporting witness
Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency.
Common Questions
Did the early Christians allow contraception?
The early Christian writers in these cards do not clearly allow it. They more often link sex with childbearing and warn against abortion and drugs that stop conception.
Did any early Christian writer mention birth control drugs?
Yes. Hippolytus mentions women using drugs for producing sterility, which is the closest direct hit to contraception in these cards.
What Bible passages are closest to this topic?
Genesis 38:9, the story of Onan, and Numbers 5:27-28 are the closest passages in this set, though they are often used in different ways.
Source Index for Contraception
The guided sections above show the strongest quotations. This compact index highlights 160 ranked source links from 227 compiled sources for deeper study.
Source index 160 ranked links shown
Early Christian Writings 80 shown of 143
Primary-source quotations from early Christian writers and church documents.
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Ignatius of Antioch, Connection to Matthew 1:18
Bible Passages 80 shown of 84
Related Bible passages saved for comparison with the early Christian quotations.